He was a last minute addition to the team at centre-back alongside Mamadou Sakho as Scott Dann picked up an injury on Friday.

And after being on the end of Palace's seventh league defeat from the opening seven games, with no goals scored, he made the most honest assessment of the season so far.

"Nine goals conceded in two weeks is not good enough but we need to be conscious that we still have 30 games left and it will hopefully not be too long before we players returning from injury,” he told Palace's official website.

"Once we get some of the lads back we can start doing what we know we are capable of because our first seven games have just not been good enough.

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"It is good to be back from a personal point of view but results wise it’s about sticking together, rolling our sleeves up and realising the size of the task we have ahead of us.

"The run of games we have had is not ideal but we have had tougher mountains to climb at this football club in the past. First and foremost we must get back on the training ground and get ourselves prepared for the challenge ahead."